05/29/1985 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

e e e ~ M E M 0 RAN 0 U M May 24, 1985 TO: City Council FROM: Mike Gleason, City Manager SUBJECT: UNINTERRUPTABLE POWER SOURCE FOR COMMUNICATION CENTER The purpose of this memo is to request an appropriation of $41,500 from general fund contingency for the Communications Center. The expenditure is being made to provide the facility with an uninterruptab1e power source. As you know, the Communications Center presently serves the City of Eugene Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and, under contract, provides Fire and EMS communications service to the City of Springfield and 24 rural fire protection districts. In addition, the center is the Central Lane County Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for the 911 emergency telephone system and receives calls for approximately 86 percent of Lane County. In the 911 function, the center serves 30 public safety agencies outside the city of Eugene. The Communications Center operates state-of-the-art computerized radio and telephone equipment and other sophisticated electronics which require constant, uninterruptab1e electrical power without voltage spikes. It must also be free of noise which may be interpreted as data. Presently, neither the regular commercial power nor the emergency generator installed in City Hall in 1964 are capable of providing a constant or clean power flow. As a result, the system goes through a restart seauence whenever it experiences a serious power fluctuation. Since the emergency generator has a start-up time of 10 seconds, any power loss also triggers the restart sequence. The ComCenter computers reauire one to one-and-a-half minutes to reset all terminals and equipment. As a result, we could, during a power loss or transfer to backup power, be unable to receive any 911 or other telephone calls or radio transmissions during this one to one-and-a-half minute interval--a high liability factor in police and fire emergencies, particularly given the number of agencies served. Any combination of failure of (a) the utility to provide clean power, (b) the backup generator to start quickly under a load (it is not feasible to design such a backup), or (c) the generator to provide clean power, will cause the system to shut down and go through a restart function which causes a loss of operational capability of one-and-a-half minutes. A UPS with a Line Conditioner will solve this problem. It provides battery backup, will filter noise from either the utility or generator, and could filter noise from other power sources userl in a prolonged emergency, such as a large portable generator. It would also remove peaks, fluctuations,